Search

The low percentages of women studying engineering around the world especially in northern America is a well-known issue in higher education. Despite many efforts from academic institutions and industry, the number of women enrolled in undergraduate engineering programs in the United States has stagnated around 17-19 percent since 2003. However, in the Middle- Eastern GCC countries in general and in the United Arab Emirates UAE in particular, a different picture emerges. There has been significant progress in women enrolling in STEM programs, especially engineering, in the GCC over the past few years. In the case of the UAE, the vision of the government leadership, as evident in the constitution and in government initiatives provides some insight into some of the support leading to this phenomena. The Petroleum Institute PI in Abu Dhabi admitted its first cohort, of male students, 2001. Five years later, the institute opened its doors to female students. Initially, the numbers of enrolled female students were low as no on campus housing was available for them. In 2014 female dormitories became available and the number of female students surged. Over 63% of the 2020 class are female. This surge in interest by young Emirati women in engineering is of particular interest as all PI graduates begin their careers with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), in the Oil and gas industry, an industry with one of the lowest percentages of female employees. This paper examines the PI female students' performance. It also explores their motivation, expectations, career choice as well as the kind of support they receive. The findings shed some light on the reasons why they chose to pursue a career in the oil and gas industry, where they would be interested to work, and who encourages them. The discussion also examines if they feel that the oil and gas industry offers the same opportunities for female employees as for male employees and that women can reach top management positions within the oil and gas industry. It seems there are several factors contributing to the current increase in the percentage of women in engineering. It is probably a combination of factors such as the vision of the government and the motivation of the young women to serve their community and make their families proud. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental protection agency defines sustainability as something that creates and maintains the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations. The concept of sustainability has been widely accepted and is considered a desirable feature in any product or system that is being designed. Engineers play a vital role in the societal development and even they are characterized as the exploiters of potential for useful purpose. Perceptions on sustainability differ from culture to culture and from industry to industry. The concept of sustainability is usually introduced to students by mean of the University culture or by means of different introductory engineering courses. Most of the engineering programs have an introductory engineering design courses, where the sustainability module is placed. STPS 201 (Strategies for team based problem solving) is a three credit sophomore engineering design course at The Petroleum Institute which introduces the students to engineering design. This course is currently being looked to address the sustainability component which would serve to increase the awareness of sustainability, thereby fulfilling the ABET requirements for the program, objectives of the university sponsors, and finally the UAE 2020 vision. The objectives and visions are laid very clearly at the top but not much is done between the different levels to address the sustainability component. So a "bottom-up" approach is being used to embed the sustainability into the university curricula to meet the objectives and vision. In this paper, authors will address * Need to address the sustainability component in the curriculum * Student perceptions and knowledge on sustainability by means of a survey before taking the course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]